Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Lesson 7 - Listing Your Items, Categories, Tabs, and Photos

Ok, now that you've gotten this far, your shop is ready to fill with your lovely creations, but first we need to set up our custom categories.

Click on the top pink button and enable your custom categories, then move down and add your first top level category.

Now, you can have as many categories and sub categories as you can dream up...but I personally follow the KISS formula. Keep It Simple Stupid. :0)

I also suggest that you take the time and decide what categories you want first, then have your list ready when you start making your categories. Your page will look like this.

**Note - you do not need to create custom categories for your items to be searchable.

Now go back to my shops in the section on the left and then click on your shop name, for class we'll be listing in Rusty Art.

As you can see, you have several tabs at the top, all your items that are completed and ready for sale will show up under active, while adding items you can choose to have them as featured items (meaning they will always show up at the top of each shop page), if you used the CVS import tool your items will show up under the imported tab, your in progress items are drafts (you can not delete a live item, it must be made a draft first), sold items, and an expired tab.....even though your items do not expire so you do not have to worry about relisting.

These tabs do not show when a customer is visiting your page, only you can see them.

Click at the top right pretty pink button to add product.

When you name your product, use good descriptions, but you don't need to stuff your title with tags, that's what the tag section is for...and don't use cutsey funny product names, you want your title to be good and searchable.

Position in shop...you can set up a specific order for your items to show in your shop, or you can leave this blank and it will sort by listing date.

Product Status is where you can decide if you want your item featured, or if you are not finished with entering the item information yet, make it a draft to save your work till next time.

The quantity...if you sell an item in a set, list the quantity by set not each item.

Now for the categories...here is where keeping a chart of your categories is helpful, if you have a lot of categories and sub categories. (After the items are live, I'll show you how the categories work on your page). The first 3 categories are set for The CraftStar site, your's is the custom category.
Be careful if you click on the enable link here, it will take you away from the page you are working on and you will lose your work. Which is why I showed you how to make your categories first.

Now the product photos....I can not stress enough just how important this step is!!!
A picture is worth a thousand words, and your item pictures are worth $$$$
A good (or bad) picture will determine if that customer makes a sale or not...plus good pictures help us here at The CraftStar promote your items...if your pictures are blurry or dark or even too busy, they may (will) get passed over for collections and features and just plain sharing.
Here's some extra homework on improving your item images...Polish your photography skillsDigital Camera WorldHow to make a light box videoHow to make a light box article
You can search for all sorts of helpful hints on product photography, but the very first thing you should read it...your camera manual!
And if these all fail you, hire someone. Or check with your local community college photography classes, maybe you can trade with a student who is building up his portfolio.